Chennai/IBNS: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s K Annamalai has claimed the accused in the alleged sexual assault incident which occurred at Chennai's Anna University is a DMK worker and was involved in similar crimes in the past.

Annamalai, who is the BJP's Tamil Nadu chief, shared a picture of deputy chief minister and DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin with the arrested accused on social media.

In a long X post, Annamalai said, "It has been revealed that Gnanasekaran, who was arrested in the case of a student being sexually assaulted at Anna University, has been involved in similar crimes several times before and is the deputy organizer of the DMK's Saidai East student wing.

"A clear pattern emerges from such criminal cases across Tamil Nadu. 1. A criminal becomes a member of the DMK and becomes close to the DMK executives in that area. 2. All cases registered against him are being shelved. Furthermore, he is being released without being classified as a criminal with a criminal record and without being placed on the watch list of the local police station."

He added, "Due to pressure from the respective local DMK executives and ministers, the police are not investigating the cases against him, which gives him room to commit further crimes. In the crimes that continue to occur throughout Tamil Nadu, the perpetrators are members of the DMK, but due to pressure from the ruling party executives, the police are not taking action.

"The innocent public is the one who is suffering. This cruelty has happened to an innocent student today because a person who has been involved in 15 cases of sexual crimes has been left without taking any action for so many days."

Rejecting the allegations, DMK's A Saravanan said as quoted by NDTV, If somebody is taking a picture with a leader, what does it mean? Whoever it is, if someone has committed a crime, or done something wrong, the law won't keep quiet. It has happened in this case. He has been arrested, he cannot escape justice.

"The Opposition parties do not have anything to say against the DMK, so every day they are saying law and order situation has deteriorated."

The Tamil Nadu government has come under attack after a second year engineering student at Anna University alleged that an unidentified person threatened her and sexually assaulted her inside the campus.